Annad Bhavanti Bhutani

Bhagavad Gita: 3:14

annad bhavanti bhutani
parjanyad anna-sambhavah
yajnad bhavati parjanyo
yajnah karma-samudbhavah

Food sustains life. Rains sustain food. Yajna sustains rains and yajna is born of prescribed duties.

It is doubtful if any other culture in the world has given this much importance to food as the Indian and if there are as many deities solely dedicated to food in any religion other than Hinduism. If you combine the two ultimate truths of Hinduism -"Aham Brahmasmi" ("I am Supreme"), with "Annam Brahmaswaroopam" ("Food is Supreme"), after cancelling the "Brahmam" on the LHS and RHS of the equation and ignoring the pronoun "asmi", you end up with "Aham Annaswaroopam", that translates roughly to "I am what I eat", rather a slap on the face to Decartes. We have Annapoorani, the Goddess of food, DhanyaLakshmi (Goddess of grains), Sagambari (Goddess of crops) - come to think of it- there seem no male divinity associated with food , except as consumers - think Krishna and his butter, Ganesha and his modhak etc.



Food has played an important role in our lifestyle, relationships and even faith and literature. Every event, from conception to the pyre is associated, and not just subtly, with food. Almost every traditional temple, along with its fascinating lore, is associated with a specific food item that is special to it. And I talk of South Indian temples alone, having no personal experience with the temples North of Andhra Pradesh. Even among the South Indian Temples, Sri Vaishnavaite temples are more closely associated to food than Saivaite ones.

Tirupathi is no less known for its Laddu than for its Deity. Visit a Hanuman temple, and the monkey God is either coated with butter or garlended with vadais or beetle leaves. Narasimhar temples offer you panagams on Swathi and pradosham. Do you know that the roti (a North Indian dish, not traditionally favoured in the south) is a special prasaad at the Srirangam temple, in commemoration of the Mughal princess (thulukka Naachiyaar) who fell in love with the Lord?

The Kancheepuram Temple has an idly named after it. There is one temple nearabouts Rameshwaram (I forget which) that offers a special payasam, the kind that was given to Dasharatha after the Puthrakameshti yaagam, and childless couples flock to partake of it to be blessed with a child. When Aandal said "Mooda nei peidhu muzangai vazivaara", she must have eaten the Chakkara pongal at the Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane. The deity at the outskirts of Kumbakonam, Sri Oppiliyappan, offers to his flock, saltless food, to ease the burden of cooking on his child bride, Boodevi.

Paal payasam is the most common prasadam at Kerala temples dedicated to Krishna. The taste of the pinkish dessert of Guruvayur obliterates all the struggle you faced to get it in your gooja and makes you beg for more.

These examples are just appetizers. If temples are but pointers to lifestyle, it takes more than a blog to capture the essence of food in the Indian culture. Indeed, it wouldn't be surprising if cookery blogs are the largest type of Indian blogs in web2. Think of any entree you remember having tasted as a four-year-old at your grandmother's house in an obscure village miles from nowhere and google it. I wager that you would arrive at its recipe in not less than ten blogs.

This blog is just another of them. We may not say anything that you do not know already, but we will endeavor to spice it up.